In order to impart characteristics such as abrasion resistance, heat resistance, and corrosion resistance to metal parts of various industrial machines or general-purpose machines, a thermal spray coating has been conventionally provided on the surface of parts. As a material for forming the thermal spray coating, a cermet powder is well known, which at least contains a ceramic such as Lungsten carbide and cobalt as its main components (e.g., see Patent Documents 1 and 2). Compared with other metals, cobalt has an excellent ability as a binder to bind ceramic particles in a thermal spray powder. Therefore, a thermal spray coating formed from a cermet powder containing cobalt is excellent in hardness, abrasion resistance, heat resistance, and corrosion resistance, compared with a thermal spray coating formed from a cermet powder containing other metals. While cobalt is, however, essential in modern society as a material for a secondary battery of an electronic device, cemented carbide or the like, it is traded at a high price because its suppliers are unevenly located and are unstable politically and economically. At the same time, the price of cobalt varies unstably because its production is low. This is one reason for an increase in the price of the cermet powder containing cobalt. Therefore, there has been a need for developing a new cermet powder that can forma thermal spray coating having performance equal to or superior to that of the thermal spray coating formed from the cermet powder containing cobalt while containing a metal that is a substitute for cobalt and is stably lower in price, higher in production, and thus can be stably supplied, compared with cobalt.